Contemporary with Polygnotus was Evenor, the master as well as father of Parrhasius[106]. But before Parrhasius began to distinguish himself, Apollodorus of Athens had made a great and rapid stride in art, and had painted at least two pictures that for six centuries commanded the admiration of all men of taste and understanding. He therefore may be considered as the first of the second epocha of Greek painting. It was Apollodorus who first gave the niceties of character and expression to his figures; strength and force without exaggeration, and tenderness without insipidity. He added also to the mechanical powers of the painter, by breaking the colours, and showing the value of light and shade, of harmony and contrast. Pliny says, “I may well and truly say, that none before him brought the pencil into a glorious name and especial credit[107].” The only two pictures of which we know the subjects, were preserved at Pergamos, at least until the end of the first century of the Christian era. In one the chief figure was a kneeling priest in fervent adoration. The other represented Ajax Oileus on a rock, stricken by the thunderbolt after escaping from his perishing fleet. It is evident that the effects of such subjects must have depended in great measure on light, and shadow, and colour. Accordingly, the school of Apollodorus produced the painter of most note among the ancients for those qualities. I mean the Heracleot Zeuxis; but Zeuxis had also the advantage of being a contemporary of the Ephesian Parrhasius, and was thus able to avail himself of the improvements introduced by that extraordinary man. Parrhasius no doubt made use of the studies of the Macedonian Pamphilus who painted at Sicyon, and greatly improved that famous school, whence, half a century after the time of Apollodorus, proceeded Apelles and other painters of note. This Pamphilus taught his pupils arithmetic and geometry, without which he maintained that it was impossible to paint. Linear perspective was thus improved, and some general rules, acted upon intuitively before, were now fixed; but the delicacy of eye, which demanded a finer perspective, belonged to Parrhasius. He introduced the magic of aërial perspective; and the description by Pliny, of the manner in which the objects in his pictures seemed to shadow somewhat behind, and yet showed what they seemed to hide, may lead us to imagine that he was not ignorant of the effect of reflected lights. He is praised for the beauty of his features, and peculiarly the sweetness and “lovely grace about the mouth and lips;”[108] the softness and fulness of the hair; the blended tints that melted away the outline, in some instances perhaps too much, as we gather from the painter Euphranor’s observation, that the Theseus of Parrhasius looked as if he fed on roses, while his own had evidently fed on flesh.